1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a humidity adjustment apparatus, a power generation apparatus, electronic equipment and a method of manufacturing a hollow fiber membrane module, and more particularly to a humidity adjustment apparatus capable of adjusting the humidity of a gas to be supplied to a fuel cell, a power generation apparatus, electronic equipment and a method of manufacturing a hollow fiber membrane module.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, the research and the development with regard to the power sources that can realize high energy use efficiency have been energetically performed.
Above all, a fuel cell is the one reacting a fuel with the oxygen in the atmosphere electrochemically to convert chemical energy into electric energy, and is recognized as a promising and hopeful power generation apparatus.
Such a power generation apparatus is generally provided with a humidifier (humidity adjustment apparatus) as an apparatus for adjusting humidity in order to keep the electrical conductivity of hydrogen ions high.
There has been known the membrane type humidifier (e.g. Japanese Patent Application Publication Laid-open No. 2003-115311) which is separated into a humidified gas chamber and a humidifying gas chamber with a water vapor permeable film; which introduces reacting air to be supplied to the air electrode of a fuel cell into the humidified gas chamber; which introduces an offgas ejected from the air electrode into the humidifying gas chamber; which introduces cell cooling water ejected from the cooling section of the fuel cell into the humidifying gas chamber at the same time; which thereby touches the offgas and the water with the reacting air through the water vapor permeable film to humidify the reacting air; and which adjusts the humidity thereby.
However, although the membrane type humidifier mentioned above can perform the humidification even into an unloaded condition by introducing both of the cell cooling water and the offgas into the one humidifying gas chamber and by humidifying the humidified gas (reacting gas and reacting air) in the humidified gas chamber through the water vapor permeable film, on the other hand it is not considered to adjust humidity to a desired value, and it is difficult to control the humidifying quantity of the humidified gas by the above humidifier.